There’s nothing quite like the open ocean. I’ve put thousands of miles under the bow and still find myself speechless when confronted with the power and beauty of the sea.

I’m sure the guy in the story linked above has a decidedly different opinion.

From the article:

Clements started to pray, then kicked off his boots and swam blindly in the darkness. In a stroke of luck, he bumped into one of the life rafts, which had capsized. “I was able to flip it over and somehow get in,” he says.

About an hour later a Navy helicopter, dispatched from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was on the scene and a rescue swimmer was in the water. Winds were blowing 50 knots, with 10-foot seas and driving sleet and snow.

NORFOLK, Va., Dec. 7 (UPI) — Two U.S. Navy SEALs accused in the abuse of an Iraqi detainee were arraigned in Virginia Monday, with one declining to enter a plea and one pleading not guilty.

While Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, the SEAL charged with assaulting the prisoner, didn’t enter a plea, he told reporters after the proceedings at the Norfolk Naval Station that he and his co-defendants are innocent, Navy Times reported.

“Neither I or any of my teammates did what they are accusing us of,” said McCabe, whose trial was set for Jan. 19. “If I had agreed to non-judicial punishment, I don’t believe I would have gotten a fair trial. I believe that in a trial, when all the evidence is heard, I will be acquitted.”

McCabe also is charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement.

Fellow SEAL Julio Antonio Hertas Jr., pleaded not guilty to charges of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement and impeding an investigation. He is to be tried Jan. 11.

A third SEAL, Jonathan Elliot Keefe, had his arraignment continued to an as-yet undetermined date.

Military authorities allege McCabe punched Ahmed Hashim Abed, the alleged mastermind of a 2004 ambush in Fallujah in which four Blackwater security contractors were hanged and burned, at Camp Schweidler, Iraq,

Capt. Moira Modzelewski, the judge who will preside over McCabe’s trial, issued a protective order, limiting what can be discussed publicly about the case.

ROME, Italy (CNN) — An Italian mafia boss used his pet crocodile to threaten people and extort money, authorities said.

Antionio Cristofaro kept the 40-kilogram (88-pound) reptile on a terrace of his home near Naples and fed it live rats and rabbits, according to LAV, an Italian animal rights group.

Authorities discovered the animal during a search for weapons at Cristofaro’s home, LAV said. The crocodile was found Sept. 18 but the news was only made public Wednesday, the group said.

The crocodile was 1.1 meters long (3.6 feet), the Italian Forest Service said, and was capable of pulling off a man’s limb with one bite. It lived atop Cristofaro’s condominium in Caserta, less than an hour northeast of Naples, the Forest Service said.

Cristofaro used the crocodile to intimidate people, notably entrepreneurs, to pay him more money, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.

The crocodile is of a type known as a caiman, commonly found in Latin America. It is protected under the Washington Convention, which regulates the international trade of endangered animals, and is considered too dangerous to own as a pet, the Forest Service said.

Police charged Cristofaro with illegal possession of animals, ANSA said. It was not clear whether he had been arrested.

The Forest Service is now holding the reptile at an animal center near Rome, ANSA reported.

Cristofaro, who the Forest Service said comes from a mafia family, already had a criminal record for weapons-related charges, resisting police, and extortion, ANSA reported.

Authorities found a flak jacket during a search of Cristofaro’s house, the Forest Service said.

It was not the first time the Forest Service discovered an illegal crocodile at someone’s home, the Forest Service said. In August 2008 in Naples, authorities found a 2-meter-long (6.5-foot-long) crocodile at the home of a man known for drug dealing, they said.